>Deal Expands Anthem’s Reach to Nearly 150 Million Households, Creating a Major New Force in Entertainment, Music and Sports Programming

>TORONTO | DALLAS | LOS ANGELES - September 9, 2019 – Anthem Sports & Entertainment, a global multiplatform media company, today announced it has acquired a majority interest in HDNet LLC, parent of the widely distributed U.S. television networks AXS TV and HDNet Movies, and will assume operating management of the two popular channels that cater to music, sports, entertainment and lifestyle audiences. The deal also includes AXS TV’s extensive library of owned programming, including wrestling, MMA and entertainment content.

>The two networks add significantly to Anthem’s rapidly growing portfolio of content, which is currently available in 120 countries and includes diverse and popular sports and entertainment programming targeted to passionate communities with a focus on millennial viewers.

“We are very excited to add these two successful channels to our portfolio,” said Leonard Asper, CEO, Anthem Sports & Entertainment. “Anthem was founded with a mission to deliver compelling, targeted content and experiences to passionate fans globally on the platform of their choice. The music, sports and entertainment communities served by these channels are a natural extension and perfect complement to our existing properties. The addition of AXS TV and HDNet Movies will allow for increased content ownership, digital expansion and even more compelling programming for consumers and our distribution partners.”

>Mark Cuban and AEG will continue to participate as equity partners, and AEG Global Partnerships, AEG’s advertising and sponsorship sales unit, will continue to support the channels in conjunction with Anthem’s sales team.

>Joining as an investor is entertainer, producer and businessman Steve Harvey, who will also enter into a strategic agreement for content development and promotion of Anthem’s portfolio of channels. Steve Harvey Global will have a seat on the board of directors of Anthem.

>Anthem’s board of directors will also include Ted Goldthorpe, head of BC Partners Credit, a lead financier on the acquisition; Rick Ehrman, a former senior executive at Univision and NBC Universal; Robert Foster, founder and CEO of Capital Canada; Scott Honour, founding principal of Northern Pacific Group; and Loudon Owen, chairman and CEO of DLT Labs.

“Anthem’s combination of targeted brands, enthusiastic audiences, operational expertise, international footprint and vision makes them an ideal partner to take AXS TV and HDNet Movies to their next levels,” Mark Cuban said. “Given Anthem’s portfolio of premium content and complementary programming networks, we could not ask for a better home, and we are looking forward to the results we will collectively generate for this new partnership.”

“My team and I see great opportunity in Anthem,” Steve Harvey said. “They have incredible shows, experiential entertainment, and a huge reach. We look forward to collaborating with Anthem on content development that will surprise and delight this newly expanded audience.”

>AXS TV and HDNet Movies will continue operating from their existing facilities in Denver and Los Angeles, and the combined company will include Anthem’s playout and production center in Toronto and production facilities in Nashville and Europe.

>With this transaction, Anthem channels are now estimated to reach nearly 150 million global TV homes, including more than 110 million MVPD-served TV households in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, Anthem’s proprietary content is distributed to more than 160 million global TV homes through licensing agreements with some of the world’s premier networks. Anthem’s networks and content also are available on nearly every major streaming service and digital platforms.

>Anthem has offices and studios in New York, Toronto, Los Angeles and Nashville, and in Europe. Its portfolio includes:

>IMPACT Wrestling, one of the world’s largest wrestling entertainment properties, creating more than 300 hours of original content annually across television and other digital platforms. IMPACT Wrestling specializes in premium content, pay-per-view events, products and merchandise, as well as the management, promotion and training of professional wrestlers;

>IMPACT Plus, a multi-platform mobile app and digital subscription video-on-demand platform and one of the newest additions to the Anthem family of services, featuring live monthly premium network specials, instant access to the 3,000-plus hour IMPACT Wrestling library, groundbreaking original series, reality shows, documentaries, and exclusive events from international partners;

>Fight Network, the world’s premier combat sports channel, dedicated to complete coverage of combat sports including fights, fight news and the fight lifestyle as well as mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, professional wrestling, traditional martial arts and more. Fight Network produces and owns its own library of fight themed documentaries and interview programs and is delivered to more than 43 million TV homes in the U.S., Canada and more than 15 other countries;

>GameTV, featuring game show formats and programming, both current and past; reality, drama and documentary series; feature films; sports-based games including esports, poker, and card-based games; and live sporting events – all delivered to more than 8 million television homes throughout Canada. GameTV also features online cash and social gaming through igamestv.com;

>Game+, a cutting edge, millennial-targeted sports and entertainment channel, featuring sports-wagering programs, esports events, news and information, fantasy sports programming, high stakes poker, and other action-driven shows and lifestyle programming. Game+ is distributed in more than 1 million MVPD TV homes in Canada and the US; and

>Pursuit Channel, one of the top outdoor channels in the U.S, offering outdoor enthusiasts diverse programming from calm freshwater fishing to fast-paced deer and waterfowl hunting. Pursuit Channel is available to more than 35 million TV homes in the US served by cable, satellite and IPTV. Through its app PursuitUP the channel is also available on OTT streaming services.

>AXS TV is a leading music, entertainment and lifestyle channel, including live concerts and sports events, originally founded as HDNET by Mark Cuban in 2001. The channel was rebranded in 2012 after partnering with AEG, leading to additional music content development. The network’s current programming lineup features live concerts and events, music-themed information and reality programming, live wrestling and MMA, and off-network runs of popular music-themed programming. The network is distributed to more than 50 million homes.

>AEG includes AXS TV as part of its own sponsorship portfolio, bringing many AEG partners to the network.

>HDNet Movies, available in approximately 12 million U.S. homes, features theatrically released films and documentaries presented in high definition, including a variety of iconic classics and award winners spanning the 1950s to 2000s.

Chi Chi - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 17:13:49 EST JyJS6uUQNo.6294223 Reply You really have to respect them for staying alive this long and avoiding death on multiple occasions, I think Impact will outlive us all and survive nuclear Armageddon.

>The deal will, obviously, see Impact Wrestling migrate from The Pursuit Channel to AXS, where far more viewers will be able to view the series. There have been plans in place for secondary Impact programming to debut on Pursuit as well.

>This move places Impact Wrestling on the best TV platform it has landed upon in forever as the jumping around from cable network to cable network, something that has been going on for the last five years after SpikeTV pulled a multi-year deal from Dixie Carter, at the time President of Impact, when she declined to take less money in 2014. Since then, Impact has landed on Destination American, Pop TV and The Pursuit Channel, all with dwindling audiences after each move. This gives Impact a chance to reverse that trend.

>While AXS does not give Impact the entire cable TV and satellite universes, it’s a much larger cable network than they had been on and now they can move forward without a “gun to their head” mentality waiting for the inevitable.

>As PWInsider.com reported back in July, there had been discussions going on for months attempting to secure the purchase of AXS, which would give Anthem Media a much needed footprint in the United States. The initial hope was to have had the deal done by early July and had that timeline taken place as hoped, Impact Wrestling planned to announce they were moving to AXS the Monday after Slammiversary.

>We have been told that Anthem's purchase will not change New Japan Pro Wrestling or WOW's status with AXS, but obviously that can change. Impact sources are confident in stating that AXS programming will remain in place as it currently exists, although Anthem-owned content, including Impact, will soon migrate over. Impact Wrestling, under its current management team of Scott D'Amore, Don Callis and Ed Nordholm, have long sought to build a working relationship with New Japan, which has distanced itself in recent months from Ring of Honor, so owning their TV platform gives Impact a nice advantage as New Japan works towards running more in the United States.

The chances of Impact dying were killed off when Anthem bought the company. It’s the same scenario as ROH and Sinclair Broadcasting, only Anthem actively cares about Impact, whereas Sinclair doesn’t give a flying fuck about ROH.

To the matter at hand, this is obviously great news, as Impact can finally get in-front of more eyeballs and continue their upward trajectory.

C-Higgy !lfsExjBfzE - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 17:59:49 EST qE0Hxhq0No.6294241 Reply Looks like they pulled off the deal then. Interested to see where this goes for Impact in airing on AXS TV. Do they still air Fridays at 10 or do they move back to Thursday nights perhaps?

>>6294217Well Fight Network already airs NJPW on AXS TV in Canada but considering Anthem owns Impact and NJPW has a working relationship with ROH, there might be a conflict there but ultimately that's TV Asahi's decision I think.

>I told Impact to buy a TV station he actually did it the absolute madman

>>6294217Well, ROH's parent company just completed their acquisition of the FOX RSNs. If their relationship is still stable, they could try to move onto there (which will also increase their TV presence as well).

Rene Dupree - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 18:05:22 EST mQt21HGJNo.6294245 Reply I am so happy about this as I don't like watching wrestling on Friday night at all. Leave that shit for stinky ass Smackdown and their shitty ratings when they realize people don't want to sit at home on a Friday and watch dumb ass wrestling.

Based Impact. Based MOOSE. Fucking pumped that more people can watch their show since it's better then ROH by a large margin which is funny because ROH has a much better roster.

Impact is hungry as fuck and I will watch the program that is hungry over tired any day.

>Do they still air Fridays at 10 or do they move back to Thursday nights perhaps?

they own the network, why would they put their flagship show on at a terrible time?The only reason they ever had such a bad slot on Pursuit was because they wanted the option to leave as soon as a better deal came along. Pursuit wasn't going to mess up its primetime lineup for a show that made it clear they never wanted to settle for their network.

> there might be a conflict there but ultimately that's TV Asahi's decision I think.

this is NJPW's opportunity to fuck up. Even when the news started kicking up this summer, the reports were that Anthem had no desire to get rid of NJPW on AXS.

Rene Dupree - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 18:13:58 EST mQt21HGJNo.6294251 Reply I can't wait for people who never watch Impact Wrestling to spin this as a bad thing. Actually, I can't wait for Meltzer to scoff at this and barely talk about it before he cums his pants about the Young Bucks.

Scott Steiner - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:05:43 EST o7tMi7JnNo.6294278 Reply >>6294263then why are you sperging out about Meltzer and The Bucks and TNA has it SO UNFAIR? What a weird tangent to strike out on unprompted.

David Hart Smith - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:37:06 EST yrDco3bnNo.6294298 Reply It's actually funny how just this morning I was thinking "You know, if AEW does good, maybe Impact could come back to TV and start to turn things around" and here we are, it looks like this could be happening!

Rene Dupree - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:37:30 EST mQt21HGJNo.6294299 Reply >>6294271>>6294278Calm yourselves. Just noticed on WOR he always glosses over Impact and he will go on and on about the Young Bucks. That's all I am saying. I'm not some anti-Meltzer crusader boogie man who only watches Impact.

Scott Steiner - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:43:18 EST o7tMi7JnNo.6294301 Reply >>6294299Well you are seemingly unwittingly acting like one without realizing it. Work on that. It's a strange reaction to have to positive news for TNA, to jump immediately to "ugh everyone is gonna find a way to spin this and it's all those damn Young Bucks and Meltzer's fault!" just a weird reaction to have,

Meiko Satomura - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:51:35 EST BlrIoG3oNo.6294307 Reply >>6294301tbf, there are plenty of chuds on twitter making fun of and complaining about this move. they're upset that a wrestling show they don't watch will continue to exist? i don't get it, but there are some weird fans out there

C-Higgy !lfsExjBfzE - Mon, 09 Sep 2019 20:00:26 EST qE0Hxhq0No.6294314 Reply >>6294247Yeah I see what you mean. Either Thursdays or even Tuesdays at 8pm would be ideal for them to do so they don't conflict with WWE and AEW.

>impact broadcasted on the confier saturday time slot with all the other wrestling>on a bigger network >likely on a better timeslot as well>all because basically their parent company bought the tv network they wanted to be on

impactCHADS literally cannot stop winning

first we outdraw ROHthen we outlive AEWthen we kill WWE

all according to keikaku (translator's note: keikaku means plan)

see you in 2022 when BFG draws 90.000 people

but shitposting aside, Callis' Impact has been the best wrestling show on TV for the last 3 years and this is fantastic news, they 100% deserve this

Big John Studd - Tue, 10 Sep 2019 10:58:34 EST WuGJ2oLBNo.6294509 Reply 1568127514195.png -(15444B / 15.08KB, 119x150) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.>>6294223They are the cockroach of professional wrestling. But good on them for getting AXS in the end, but hopefully things don't get messy. Just remember what happened with the Fight Network when the old men picked up TNA, so many layoffs and they got rid of the likes of John Pollock and Wai Ting.

>>6294437Impact really shouldn't be stuck in the same slot with NJPW and WOW. If they are smart, get back on Thursday nights. Or even Tuesdays.

>>6294329Impact news is included in the dirt sheet thread and is never omitted unless it's match results or news already reported in existing threads. The only reason there was little Impact coverage before was the fact that the taping schedules were very limited, but that is something that has been improved upon.

Tuesdays are better.-Thursday is a busier night with the NBA and NFL-Wrestling fans are going to be burnt out after Raw + NXT & AEW going head to head

The smartest play would be premiering on Tuesdays in the first week of October:-Thats one week after SD's last Tuesday night show, so they can pick up on Tuesday night viewing habits-Its the same week as AEW's premiere and gives them a 24 hour head start-They can ride the publicity wave of AEW's launch & WWE's premiere on Fox as "wrestling week" -Its gives them a solid month of promotion for Bound for Glory (which is looking like its a sellout)

Jacob Novak - Tue, 10 Sep 2019 11:08:46 EST jCH8J3FuNo.6294511 Reply >>6294510one other benefit of Tuesdays:-There's enough space between that and the weekend, so they could feasibly still run Twitch replays on Fridays at 10pm (or an even better weekend slot) to hold onto/pickup more viewers that way

Big John Studd - Tue, 10 Sep 2019 11:36:11 EST WuGJ2oLBNo.6294513 Reply >>6294511I would have no issue with Tuesdays, although remember they tried that before and it wasn't as good as Thursdays. Either way things have changed, the viewership is long gone, who knows what AXS will deliver. That channel is still unrated by Nielsen though I believe. But I agree they should aim for that week in October.

Inshallah this is great news, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, it all comes down to whether they can translate this to higher views and better ad rates and better money which will mean they can continue to produce quality tv,

The problem is, that despite their ability to always get the best out of their wrestlers and rebuild them, the talent pool is very thin right now. If there was a video game booking simulator, NXT would be super easy mode, but Impact would be hard more. They already do a lot on a tight budget, but is it enough to win new fans?

>>6294509get some new material swerveface, that image must be older than Maxel Hardy. Impact are the phoenix of wrestling now.

>>6294301I mean wasn't there some Impact PPV last year where Alvarez brought it up at the start of a show and meltzer said something like "no one cares, let's talk about young Bucks t shirt sales?

> As previously reported, Impact Wrestling parent company Anthem Media has acquired a controlling interest in AXS TV. The move will give Impact Wrestling a new broadcast TV home. According to PWInsider, the deals on when Impact will debut on AXS TV are still being worked out. Per the report, Anthem Media and Impact will first have to figure out an end date for the show on Pursuit Network, along with hashing out marketing plans for the Impact move to AXS TV. Additionally, PWInsider notes that new logos are being designed for the new AXS TV era of Impact. One source says there will be a new green color scheme for the logo design.

StarBuck - Tue, 10 Sep 2019 12:11:33 EST jEGuiRVRNo.6294527 Reply Hoping this doesn't effect when IMPACT airs in the UK. I like the Friday slot. I mean lately I watch it on demand anyway, but I like my weedy, boozy Fridays with comfy IMPACT and then waking up Saturday to a day of football. Saturdays could work too though. Maybe even for the better.

I wonder if this means they'll go live? A partnership with NJPW would be neat af, but I'd probably prefer they just do one with AEW and IMPACT stays its comfy self, doing their thing. They've done an awesome job making me care about 90% of their roster and while fresh talent is always nice, especially for someone like me who has limited experience with NJPW, I love IMPACT as is. I'm engaged with almost everything going on now.

But yeah, hopefully this takes the company to even better things. I'm loving IMPACT and MLW atm, AEW has my interest and I'm excited to see their weekly show. WWE is still pretty trash, but fun to laugh at with wooo and if I need some background noise while I play TEW or I just wanna eat shit and smoke weed, WWE is nearly always a good choice. Not too fussed about NXT. It'll be interesting to see how they fair going live, but I have little interest in most of the roster and I find Takeovers to generally be overhyped. Exciting times though fam. It doesn't feel like that long ago when only IMPACT was keeping me interested in wrestling. Now there's shit loads of stuff to get hype about. I still haven't watched a GCW event, but that Bloodsport video got me intrigued.

> At least 40 people have been let go from AXS TV following Mark Cuban’s sale of his majority stake in the cable network and the channel HDNet Movies to Steve Harvey and Anthem Sports & Entertainment on Monday, three individuals close to the situation tell TheWrap exclusively.

> The cuts — which two of the sources say is closer to twice that tally if you count the release of contractors, consultants and freelancers — came about quickly, with terminations occurring within hours of Cuban’s selloff being announced yesterday, multiple sources said, with one adding there wasn’t even an opportunity for the consultants to try to negotiate a new deal.

> A fourth person classified the layoffs as “deep cuts” that disproportionately impacted the fight and concert teams, and laid off almost the entirety of the staff in Dallas. The person told us that some remaining staffers in the Los Angeles office are sitting around waiting for marching orders — or at least for a new boss. Bob Gold, a spokesman for new owner Anthem, told TheWrap that AXS had slightly more than 100 employees before the cuts. Anthem is a similarly sized company.

> There are only approximately 20 AXS employees left, two of our sources said. Gold believes the number to be higher. In addition to almost the entire Dallas office being let go, much of the Denver team and about one-quarter of the LA group was terminated, according to one of the individuals.

> The individual tells TheWrap they expect an internal conference call on Wednesday to give information and share direction with the remaining employees. To this point it has been “radio silence,” the person told us. A second source agreed with the confusion, saying that some remaining employees are sitting around wondering who their boss is.

> The terminations at AXS came about because of “redundancies” created by the deal — which has been in the works for more than six months — with “almost all senior AXS executives retained,” according to Gold.

> Gold said the LA office is important to Anthem because of the music and sports teams, with Denver being valuable due to the leadership that is based there. He also said it’s a possibility the contractors who were laid off after the deal could be hired back. “We’re incredibly grateful for everyone’s contributions and excited about the company moving forward,” Gold said.

> Adam Swift, who worked as legal counsel at AXS and an executive producer for its “New Japan Pro Wrestling,” announced his termination on Twitter on Tuesday, writing: “This is my last week at AXS TV after 11 amazing years. Proud of all that we accomplished, blessed to have worked with so many wonderful people, and excited for the next adventure.”

Neko Nitta - Tue, 10 Sep 2019 20:28:00 EST o7tMi7JnNo.6294747 Reply >>6294738Thank Christ NJPW World exists and NJPW isnt all that dependent on their US TV to connect them to their core in the US marketplace.

Randy Orton - Tue, 10 Sep 2019 22:25:21 EST BlrIoG3oNo.6294822 Reply 1568168721685.jpg -(212393B / 207.42KB, 1019x1500) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.>>6294805mark cuban knowingly sold his team down the river for a payday. none of the axs execs are losing their jobs

>All for the sake of keeping the rotted zombie corpse of TNA "alive"

think this is bigger than tna. meltz has talked about the long term goal of getting Fight Network in the US. that wasn't going to happen without buying out an existing channel. Anthem now owns all of AXS' wrestling & MMA libraries... including ROH on HDNet

a lot easier said then done, and i think thats the endgame here. TNA is just one tape library Anthem owns. they've got classic wrestling like St Louis Wrestling, some MMA like Glory Kickboxing. They're in the Vince/Sinclair. They seem to be a lot more actively involved in wrestling as opposed to Sinclair & ROH, but the name of the game is still "buy buy buy"

Linda Miles - Wed, 11 Sep 2019 12:06:02 EST WuGJ2oLBNo.6295008 Reply >>6294867Anthem have been trying to get Fight Network in the US for years now, acquiring AXS is their best shot, whether they choose to rename or not. Now they just need to work on expanding the availability of the channel.

I just find it funny that they bought it just because they wouldn't put TNA on it before but if they have the financial backing to make it happen then fine, let them do as they please. Just a shame they went in with the bulldozer on day one in terms of layoffs.

>I just find it funny that they bought it just because they wouldn't put TNA on it before

Meltz reported that these talks with AXS started at the beginning of 2019 and I can't find it, but there was a PWI report from a few weeks back that when they left Pop they knew the next network had to be for the long haul. Just seemed like they were going to pull the trigger on Fight network USA come hell or high water. They were launching the UK & European versions all pretty successively last year.

What i'm really curious about is what MMA & Wrestling libraries they now own -- and if its all going on Impact+

>With Anthem having taken over the majority ownership in AXS TV, we have been besieged with questions about the future of WOW and New Japan Pro Wrestling on the cable network.

>It should be noted that sources within Impact Wrestling have noted that no decisions have been made at this time and going forward, everything will continue on as they have been. However, at some point, decisions will have to be made and there has been extreme cost-cutting across the board already at AXS TV's offices across the United States. This is normal when one company absorbs another, as sad as it is, and there are likely more to come after over 40 employees were let go from offices in Los Angeles (the corporate HQ), Dallas (where a lot of day to day work was done) and Denver, which is extremely important to pro wrestling fans as that studio was where the nuts and bolts of the New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV show was put together.

>We are told the Denver office was extremely gutted and as of now, there's no real understanding from the New Japan side yet on how things will be proceeding. Currently, New Japan has a deal through January 2020 with AXS TV. The process before the takeover was that New Japan would send over their tapes, which were edited live as NJPW produced their live events. AXS TV would do some minor editing with additional voiceover work by Kevin Kelly to fit the American broadcasts. Currently, there are several weeks of shows in the can from Royal Quest. New episodes from the Destruction Tour would technically be next, but those episodes, according to a source formerly with AXS, have not yet been put together for American consumption.

>Nothing is set in stone yet, but It's entirely possible that the NJPW on AXS TV shows, as part of a cost-cutting maneuver, could now be post-produced by Impact's production team or that AXS could go into New Japan repeats as everything is sorted out. We are told that the announcing teams for New Japan on AXS are not signed to AXS, so technically, Anthem could even have their own Impact Wrestling announcers voicing over any new content that is released.

>In the case of WOW, they have 13 episodes in the can for the first half of the current season. Those will air as scheduled. WOW is slated to begin taping episodes for the second half of their season with those episodes slated to begin airing in January. So, at the very least, WOW will be on the air as scheduled through the end of the year, and hopefully, longer after that.

>Impact Wrestling will migrate over to AXS once that transition from The Pursuit Channel to AXS TV has been formalized.

>We are told that the announcing teams for New Japan on AXS are not signed to AXS, so technically, Anthem could even have their own Impact Wrestling announcers voicing over any new content that is released.

Randy Orton - Wed, 11 Sep 2019 15:18:52 EST BlrIoG3oNo.6295116 Reply >>6295099Don and Kevin are friends, I have to imagine that's got to have some pull.

Also, Josh has gotten a lot better since working with Don and no longer being produced by John Gaburick.

Also also, Josh Matthews calling NJPW would be hilarious. And he would be perfectly cromulent, no worse than Matt Striker calling Wrestle Kingdom and certainly streets ahead of someone like Lanny Poffo.

Linda Miles - Wed, 11 Sep 2019 16:07:48 EST WuGJ2oLBNo.6295148 Reply >>6295146Josh Matthews is fucking abysmal and is one huge reason why Impact TV became unwatchable. He was so close many times to getting turfed out only to stick around because the person they wanted either didn't want to work with them or left for another company. That and Gaburick protecting his ass a lot.

Jessie McKay - Wed, 11 Sep 2019 16:12:19 EST g0JhSpRFNo.6295154 Reply >>6295146IMO Josh is fine when he's working with Cyrus. I don't know if he's good enough but after years hearing him on Impact, I must say he has improved a lot.

>>6295099If they're trying to mend fences, Josh on NJPW commentary is not a good move and I'm pretty sure :freehat: wants a better relationship with New Japan. They're not gonna screw it.

Eugene - Wed, 11 Sep 2019 23:48:47 EST z0bPliZNNo.6295359 Reply >>6295146Say what you will about Josh, but that motherfucker has been ride or die. Theres been some fucking livestreams/ppvs over the past few years that would've broke most people. Literal barns with no wifi and he had to eat a shit sandwich and act like it was MSG.

P.N. News - Thu, 12 Sep 2019 00:59:03 EST GXHNtkkwNo.6295375 Reply yeah Josh has become much less horrible over the past couple of years, and that mania weekend when he was hustling the whole time was really impressive

>IMPACT Wrestling, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment and one of the world’s largest professional wrestling organizations, announced today it has entered into an agreement to broadcast its flagship weekly two-hour program IMPACT! nationally across the U.S. on AXS TV, a leading music, sports, entertainment and lifestyle channel in which Anthem Sports & Entertainment recently acquired a majority interest.

>Immediately following IMPACT Wrestling’s biggest pay-per-view event of the year Bound For Glory, which takes place on Oct. 20 in Chicago, IMPACT! will begin airing weekly on AXS TV. The program will continue to simulcast globally on IMPACT Wrestling’s official Twitch channel.

“IMPACT Wrestling is a perfect fit for AXS TV’s slate of live sporting events and combat sports content,” said Ed Nordholm, Chief Corporate Officer of Anthem Sports & Entertainment and President of IMPACT Wrestling. “The newest addition to our growing portfolio of media assets, AXS TV’s audience perfectly aligns with our passionate IMPACT Wrestling fan base, and this move increases the reach for our weekly program with distribution in over 50 million homes. We could not ask for a better home and are excited by the opportunities to work with Mark Cuban and Anschutz Entertainment Group, our partners in AXS TV, to bolster IMPACT Wrestling’s presence in the market, as we continue to deliver action-packed and innovative weekly programming featuring some of the most athletic and gifted stars in the professional wrestling industry.”

>Showcasing top professional wrestling stars such as IMPACT World Champion Brian Cage, plus Rob Van Dam, Rhino, Moose, Eddie Edwards, Sami Callihan, Rich Swann, Michael Elgin, the high-flying X-Division and the Knockouts, including Gail Kim, Tessa Blanchard, Taya Valkyrie, Tenille Dashwood, Rosemary, Madison Rayne and Su Yung, IMPACT! has been a leading destination for professional wrestling fans, televised globally in 120 countries since its inception in 2002, while growing its popularity and reach on YouTube, Twitch, Pluto and social media platforms.

Nicole Bass - Thu, 12 Sep 2019 11:56:46 EST jCH8J3FuNo.6295485 Reply >>6295481yah, presume that Tenille leaves after BFG and they finally release Killer Kross (who is not even on the poster), they're not in bad shape.

And it would be smart to retool Xplosion into a studio show to run on Pursuit and/or Twitch and feature more indie/freelance talents.

It's also pretty telling that Tessa is front and center. There's been rumors that she is Impact's highest paid talent. And if they keep WOW (where she's being paid to be the trainer and top star), she becomes the centerpiece of AXS.

>Immediately following IMPACT Wrestling’s biggest pay-per-view event of the year Bound For Glory, which takes place on Oct. 20 in the Chicago area, IMPACT! will begin airing weekly on AXS TV. The program will continue to simulcast globally on IMPACT Wrestling’s official Twitch channel.

> The Anthem Sports and Entertainment acquisition of AXS TV this week is already seeing drastic changes for the worse. Numerous AXS employees were let go as Anthem brought in their own crew and cut job positions. Now an MMA group is the first cancellation victim of the new management‘s axe.

> AXS TV Fights crew members have announced that the 9/13/19 event of Legacy Fighting Alliance on the “AXS TV Fights” live broadcast series will be the last LFA show to air. Phoenix Carnevale, who was the cage-side reporter on the show, has been released as well and Friday night will be her last show with AXS. It is unclear if “AXS TV Fights” will continue with any future live MMA events. As of now the 9pm-11pm EST time slot for 9/20/19 is scheduled to be a highlights show of the best MMA fights over the last 15 years.

> The next LFA events are 9/27/19 in Prior Lake, Minnesota and 10/4/19 in Broomfield, Colorado. Those will not be televised unless the group can find a new broadcast outlet quickly. This almost immediate cancellation of LFA is a bad sign that everything is potentially on the programming chopping block under the new majority ownership of the network.

C-Higgy !lfsExjBfzE - Thu, 12 Sep 2019 12:44:42 EST UveV14HwNo.6295502 Reply >>6295488Well I'm glad they'll still be simulcasting the show though I guess they haven't determined yet what day and time Impact will air.

>>6295492Right but I imagine that Impact will still be an hour and a half due to international syndication and stuff.

Nicole Bass - Thu, 12 Sep 2019 13:25:47 EST jCH8J3FuNo.6295517 Reply >>6295515highly doubt that. They only had that slot because it was a temp placement while they negotiated the AXS deal. They've done press that if/when they moved, they might give Pursuit a second show like Xplosion to air in its place.

Tuesday or Thursday in prime time would be ideal but there's a lot to figure out about AXS' schedule now. AXS did have Fright night live MMA but that's up in the air with these layoffs >>6295501 but it could also mean they're bringing in Fight Network people to take over that slot and simulcast fights in Canada. FN broadcasts a lot of international MMA & boxing and having to move Impact to Fridays messed up the broadcast schedule of those events too.

No word on what's going on with NJPW and WOW either, they've only said its business as usual for now on Saturday nights.

It wouldn't unreasonable to suspect 2 hour Impact, live international MMA & 2 hour combo of NJPW/WOW runs Thursday-Friday-Saturday. That also frees them up to run their Twitch & Impact Plus & PPVs over the weekend without competing with themselves.

>Callis states the obvious and confirms a majority interest has been bought by Anthem. Its like the Stones playing in a garage, the music is good but nobody is listening. That hopefully is about to change. Puts over the fact what makes it different than before is that we own our network.

>D'Amore puts over the equity partnership with AEG, says there some nice venues which they will look to run as a result and the fact they are on board is a huge honor.

>Jericho says people don't realize how wealthy Anthem are and they are owned by billionaires and they are not afraid to make very difficult and tough decisions. The moment they got a foot into the US market people will start to see it, He puts them up there Tony Khan and Vince.

>Callis said before they called Scott and himself, they were about to shut down the company. Because of horrible mismanagement from people before us. Thats where Jericho came in.

>Callis then puts over Dave Meltzer and the Observer, saying he is one of the few to cover it accurately amongst some of the laughable takes he's heard. Confirms talks have been going since 2018.

>Callis says the moment this deal was announced, an employee of this company since 2002 came to me and said, this company has not had this much stability. Even with the Spike deal, it was always "when are we going to get cancelled? when is the shoe going to drop? when is something gonna happen? as we're totally dependent on this deal. Now we don't have to worry." the ironic thing is, we've outlived Spike.

>Chris Jericho puts over the fact Impact will just not die after everything it has been through. You're not going to kill this company, Says everytime its knocked down it just gets back up and dusts itself off. They've just come from Pursuit Channel. D'Amore lets out a "Hah!" and Jericho says you've got to live in the woods to see it. Nobody survived or survives like this company.

>D'Amore agrees with the notion that even with the old TNA on Spike it was a very turbulent time for the company because, cancellation was always looming over our heads or if we didn't get a good rating that week.

>D'Amore also says it was difficult to sit there knowing we'd be leaving Pop (for a while) and going to Pursuit, the only thing that gave him belief was that it was short term.

>Callis says as an insider, you know why you're doing things and to sit there and keep mum about things when you see some horrible takes from so called wrestling insiders or by people who don't have a clue as to what's coming.

>Jericho then says its like The Beatles and Sgt Pepper, because before that album the band released 3 albums in a year, and then they took a year off to make Sgt Pepper with claims that The Beatles are done etc to which McCartney then says "Alright motherfucker, you just wait and see."

>Callis would say to D'Amore, about some of the stuff over the past 6 months "wow this stuff is fucking great", to which D'Amore sat there and said, man we really should be saving this for a bigger platform. But at the same time, we needed the attention. D'Amore said it was frustrating to watch talent nearly kill themselves for a platform like Pursuit.

>Jericho then puts over Impact's social media and digital numbers, says its in the upper echelons of the business. Callis said he did an audit of numbers and compared it with the likes of MLW, ROH and NJPW and it was roughly 10x more than those guys.

>Callis says one area where Digital/Streaming TV has not caught up with linear television is with rights fees. They had a number of pitches from streaming providers and they were great pitches but the question they'd usually stumble on was "How do we monetize it?" Its not about one big revenue stream its about multiple revenue streams. Jericho agrees, whilst everybody is cord cutting and going digital, you still have to have that TV.

>Callis puts over Ed Nordholm, says the amount of hours he has put into this deal once Len (Asper) made it clear he wanted to buy was inhuman. Best part about it is, he doesn't like being on camera, thats usually the sign of a good guy to work for.

>Callis originally didn't actually think Anthem were big enough to buy their own network, and when he and D'Amore were told talks were at an advanced stage a month ago, thats usually an indicator a deal is going to go through. I sat there in amazement about what this could mean for us. Also Anthem is the first ever Canadian operator of a US television network.

>D'Amore says the people who have reached us outside the company when the deal was announced has been amazing, including some very well known people in WWE/AEW and legends and so on. Its been great.

>Callis says the landscape of wrestling has changed so dramatically that you have promoters out there who are willing to pay over the odds for a certain talent to keep them off the market. So in an atmosphere like that, you either get really good and adapt very well with the changes going on and being nimble and make new people or stars on a consistent basis.

>D'Amore says, the key to a good booker is to make new stars. Always. Puts over the likes of Konnan, Jimmy Jacobs and Tommy Dreamer for doing that all the time, especially within the last couple of months. Don't teach young talent how to wrestle, the thing we have to do is how do we turn up the volume on this kid? Puts over Ace Austin and Kiera Hogan as an example, they've undergone a direction change and they've really breaking out. You don't say oh you're a great wrestler, and just let them wrestle. You have to turn up the volume as well.

>Callis says certainly on various shows he watches, there is A LOT of underdeveloped talent for whatever reason when it comes to the non-wrestling parts of the business. They always have something but the booker they work for has not gotten it with said wrestler yet. To the point that said talent gets released and they go kill it elsewhere. He highlights Jon Moxley for this.

>Jericho asks, how with everybody signing everyone do you keep bringing in the young talent. D'Amore says the Twitch shows help, because we get to see talent in an a situation they are not used to. So its a case of "Ok you've got 7 minutes, here is the 87 moves you can't do because its somebodies finish, don't touch the microphone" go out there and have fun and show us how good you are. You really have to provide a tough situation to really get into a certain young talent's psyche.

>Don Callis: "It's funny how a lot of the rumors over the last year and half have been like, 'Oh, they're not gonna last!' This (AXS) deal gets announced, all of a sudden, I saw a rumor that we were buying Ring Of Honor. It's funny how one event like this can completely change people's perception."